Borges: Julian Edelman needs to cash in now

Credit: John Wilcox

As is often the case in the NFL, there are two ways to look at the five-year, $25 million contract Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper signed yesterday to remain in Philadelphia.

You can see it as the negotiating floor for the Patriots’ own potential free agent wide receiver, Julian Edelman, arguing that they were two of the more proven commodities ready to go on the open market next month when Cooper signed. Or you can look at Cooper’s yards-per-catch and argue his new contract has nothing to do with Edelman, because what he does has nothing to do with what Edelman does ... or more importantly doesn’t do.

The wise bet here is the perpetually penurious Patriots will see things from the latter point of view, because guys who average 17.8 yards a catch get paid and guys who average 10.1 yards a catch don’t.

Cooper is coming off a roller-coaster season that began with his use of a racial slur at a Kenny Chesney concert that some felt might cost him his job and ended with having adapted so smoothly to the installation of Chip Kelly’s high-speed offense and quarterback Nick Foles as its leader that he more than doubled in one season his career totals for receptions and yards. Cooper’s 47 catches for 835 yards and eight touchdowns were not exactly Megatron-like accomplishments, but his 17.8 yards-per-catch average was (in fact tying him with the original Detroit’s Calvin Johnson). And so he cashed in because when it comes to receivers it’s the ones who can take the ball deep who take the check to the bank.

Edelman is not such a receiver, but that is not to say he wasn’t highly productive. Last season, he caught 105 passes, fourth best in the NFL, and gained 1,056 yards and not simply because he was a slot receiver in an offense designed for anyone in that position to catch a lot of balls.

In fact, during Super Bowl week last month, Edelman was stopping people in the street in Midtown Manhattan to remind them he played 51 percent of the time last season on the outside. The problem is that while that was true, he was also a possession receiver who took those 105 receptions an average of only 10.1 yards. In other words, he was a doubles hitter in a homer-hitting league, the same charge leveled at Wes Welker on his way out the door a year ago.

So is Cooper’s $25 million deal the floor for Julian Edelman or the ceiling? Perhaps it is neither, especially if Edelman has the cajones to walk back into the open market that treated him so rudely a year ago.

After lingering there for an uncomfortable few days with little action, Edelman came back to the Patriots and signed a one-year, $765,000 deal with no signing bonus that escalated to an eventual $1.02 million when he hit a number of incentives. He then grabbed his opportunity and made the most of it, far exceeding the production of a guy whose contract he should insist the Patriots exceed, if he’s to return to Foxboro.

That, of course, is Danny Amendola, the injury-impaired slot receiver who the Patriots handed a five-year, $28.5 million deal with $10 million coming in the first two years. That is a slightly better deal than Cooper just landed, and for a player who caught only 53 passes for 633 yards, averaging 11.7 yards a catch and scoring only twice. Worse, Amendola missed four games and limped through several others, continuing a remarkable string of misfortune that has now seen him miss exactly half (24) of the games he was eligible for (48) during the past three seasons.

Where all these numbers will lead Edelman remains to be seen, but where they should lead is to the highest bidder with no other considerations being taken into account.

Why? Because he will be 28 in May and never has made anything more than NFL minimums. His NFL mortality already is staring at him, and if he signs a four- or five-year deal whatever he gets will be the height of his earning power, so he best maximize it because after those years it’s back to the minimum or nearly so.

As one veteran player agent who has represented a number of the league’s top players and many more just like Edelman said yesterday, “Edelman needs to go to the highest bidder this time. As a seventh-round pick, who never made any real dough, this is his last, best chance to cash in. He needs to end up surpassing Amendola’s deal because he played better than Amendola.

“A good comparable would be the Dolphins’ five-year, $30 million deal for Brian Hartline. I don’t see the Patriots doing that, but some fool will. Edelman’s agents have to make that happen.”

If they do it’s not likely to be in Foxboro, but at this time of year football is not a sport it’s a business. If Edelman doesn’t want to get the business, the same way Wes Welker did, he better remember that.